Episode 2: Fisk tightens the screws, and Matt finally hits back
Marvel and Disney doubled up on Daredevil: Born Again this week, releasing episodes 2 and 3 together. Episode 2 spends most of its time showing just how far Mayor Wilson Fisk has pushed New York toward full-blown authoritarian cosplay, with the Ant-Vigilante Task Force acting like his own private security detail.
At the end of the first episode, Cherry was left badly hurt after an attack by the AVTF. Episode 2 opens with him recovering in hospital while Bullseye heads to a church familiar to viewers of the Netflix era and asks for “Sister Maggie.” He is told she is in Rome. For anyone who needs the refresher, Maggie is Matt Murdock’s mother, who left him when he was young after struggling with her vows as a nun.
Bullseye then delivers a grim little confession to the priest: “Father I need absolution, I betrayed people, betrayed myself…” The blue lighting that follows is a pretty clear wink back to earlier Daredevil and Born Again imagery, because apparently some visual trauma should come with branding.
There is at least a hint that Bullseye may be heading toward something like a redemption arc. He later kills more AVTF agents who try to intercept Cherry after he leaves the hospital, so the road there is, naturally, still paved with bodies.
Meanwhile, Fisk is preparing for his own “fight night” while also plotting how to get to Daredevil. He refuses to expose Matt Murdock’s identity, not because he is suddenly developing ethics, but because the blind lawyer who saved his life is apparently not an “easy sell.” Instead, Fisk launches a citywide campaign of missing-person posters for Matt, wrapping the whole thing in concern while clearly trying to flush him out. Efficient, if unpleasant.
The fake Kingpin broadcasts mocking Fisk are also causing headaches. Sheila suspects Daniel Blake of leaking information to the people behind them, and although Daniel denies it, he is later shown copying footage from the Northern Star. Fisk notices, and threatens him over the leaks. Subtlety continues not to be anyone’s strong suit.
Episode 2 also pushes Angela del Toro closer to becoming the new White Tiger. While she is with Aunt Soledad in a bodega, the store owner pulls a gun on a group of teens trying to steal. When the AVTF shows up, they beat the owner, assault one of the teenagers, and arrest Soledad. That triggers neighborhood unrest, which is the sort of predictable outcome one gets when a mayor hands unchecked power to a masked militia.
The chaos pushes Angela toward action, and she goes to Kirsten McDuffie to get White Tiger’s amulet.
Back at the loft hidden above Josie’s bar, Karen and Matt get one brief moment of peace together, including a dance that feels almost normal for about five seconds. Then a loud siren outside throws Matt off balance, the AVTF storms the bar to arrest Josie, and the mood collapses immediately.
Matt suits up and joins the fight, taking on the agents in a sharply choreographed brawl. One especially nasty beat sees him point a shotgun at two officers, catch them in the blast of the light, and let them assume he is about to fire before he shoots the ceiling instead and beats them senseless. It is hard to blame him for the attitude.
After rescuing Josie, Matt and Karen escape to the Punisher’s old bunker, where Karen reveals she is holding an AVTF agent hostage. It is a fairly clear sign that she is willing to take some very questionable risks if it gives the resistance an edge over Fisk.
Episode 3: Daredevil breaks the prison open
The AVTF agent Karen grabbed in episode 2 turns out not to be a total dead end. He tells Matt and Karen that he wants to defect, and Matt listens to his heartbeat to check whether he is lying. He is satisfied the man is being honest and hands over a keycard for the Red Hook prison.
Elsewhere, Heather Glenn is still fixated on the Muse mask and the trauma left behind by last season’s events. She and McDuffie argue about vigilantes and whether masked people can ever really be good. Heather’s view is predictable enough: Muse almost killed her, and masks give people cover for violence, which explains why she has been so aggressive in the case against Jack Duquesne, a.k.a. Swordsman.
McDuffie is then escorted to Red Hook for a confidential meeting with Jack, and Cole North does not exactly impress anyone by being courteous. Once she reaches Jack, the two talk through the problem that there is not much credible evidence against him. Then again, in this version of New York, that seems more like a technicality than a safeguard.
Jack makes the point bluntly that Fisk probably does not need evidence at all to convict him. The accusation is enough. Fisk is running the city like a dictator, which is a little on the nose, but at least the show is not pretending otherwise.
That feeds into a major argument between Karen and Matt about whether Fisk should be killed. Karen pushes the idea that it might be the right thing to do. Matt admits he thinks about it every day, but he still hopes the system is “not entirely broken” and says stopping Fisk is as far as they should go. When he reduces it to the most important question, it lands hard: “Would it bring Foggy back?” No, of course it would not. So murder is not the answer, even if the temptation is doing its best to be persuasive.
The Swordsman trial goes exactly the way you would expect in Fisk’s New York. Jack is found guilty of violating the Safer Streets initiative and the anti-vigilante laws, then sent back to Red Hook prison. It is not exactly a shock to the system.
What does shock the prison is Daredevil. Using McDuffie’s description of being marched through the facility, Matt breaks in and listens for the watch he left in the weapons crate on the Northern Star. Once he has the layout, he sets the prisoners free and teams up with Jack for a superbly staged one-take fight against the guards.
The sequence is one of the most satisfying in the season so far, especially because it is not just about Matt beating up soldiers. It is about him breaking people out of a detention center run by Fisk’s enforcers. That does rather change the tone.
Angela also arrives in a White Tiger costume based on her uncle’s gear, and she joins Karen in stealing a military truck so they can get more prisoners out. The resistance, in other words, is no longer operating in whispers.
Of course, Fisk has already started working the other side of the board. He bombs the Northern Star, killing the night crew, and does it at the exact same time as the prison break. The timing makes the frame-up obvious: he can blame Daredevil for the explosion and the deaths, and then sell the whole thing to the public as proof that his crackdown was justified all along.
So yes, Matt manages to free innocent people from a detention facility. Fisk, being Fisk, turns the optics into a weapon anyway. It is almost impressive, in the deeply miserable way that only this character can manage.
The next episode will have plenty to clean up. In the meantime, Matt has gone from resisting in the shadows to open war with the AVTF, and Fisk is already trying to make him look like the villain.
